Power of Encounter

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
‘Give me a drink.’”

John 4:7

When Jesus was heading back to Galilee He decided to pass through Samaria. To the Jews this would have flashed red flags because the Jewish People had a disdain for the Samaritans and would avoid them at all costs. So for Jesus to choose to pass through Samaria and not take one of the routes that bypassed it, He must have had His reason. There in Sychar, Samaria at Jacob’s well, Jesus sat down to rest and the Samaritan woman went to draw water. It was at the well that the encounter between God and man, Jews and Gentiles took place. It was there that all barriers started to break.

The woman who went to draw water to satisfy her thirst and daily chores unknowingly went to the well and met the Source of the living water. While Jesus asked the woman for a drink, He was also offering her a drink, a drink that will forever quench her deepest thirst — her thirst for love, true love, freedom, and new life. Jesus thirsts so that we might thirst for Him. He thirsts for love of us.

Jesus broke all sorts of barriers that day. For a man to talk with and interact with a woman one on one in public was unheard of as well as already mentioned the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Moreover, for a woman to go to the well at noon and to do so alone tells us that she must have been shunned or not accepted by the other women. She must have been living a life that was inappropriate or sinful. And yet, Jesus looked at her, spoke to her, and offered her the gift of eternal life.

Jesus seeks to encounter us today and wishes to offer this gift to us today too. Do we want the living water that wells up to eternal life or are we content with the water that only satisfies our physical thirst for a while?

Righteousness That Comes From Faith

“It was not through the law
that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants
that he would inherit the world,
but through the righteousness that comes from faith.”

Romans 4:13

Because of the nature of the penitential season of Lent, the Church does not usually celebrate the feasts and memorials of the Saints during Lent. This means that on the day of a saint’s feast day there will only be a commemoration because the Lenten weekday takes precedence. However, there are two important days that usually fall during Lent that breaks this “rule.” The Annunciation of Our Lord, the day when the Angel visited Mary and told her should would come to be the mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, thus, the Word becoming flesh. Of course this day will be celebrated with extreme solemnity! But, do you know which is the other feast day? You guessed correctly: the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the foster father of Jesus.

This day of celebration during Lent alone tells us the place of and the regard the Church has for this mostly silent figure, the “Sleeping Giant,” St. Joseph. St. Joseph was, as the Scriptures tell us, a righteous man, meaning one who is in right relationship with God. Someone who is righteous is someone who above all things seeks to do the will of God. St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that it was not through any law that Abraham was promised any land or descendants, but rather through righteousness, one that comes from faith. It was a covenant that God made with Abraham, a promise founded upon and rooted in love, between the Lover and the beloved, through which the “Beloved Son” of God would come into the world. From Abraham, our Father in Faith to Joseph, a descendant of David and a righteous man in the eyes of God, the promise of God to His people can be seen.

St. Joseph was there when Mary was pregnant with Jesus. He protected Mary and Jesus while traveling to Bethlehem for the census and also during the flight into Egypt. St. Joseph held Jesus, fed Him, and taught Him how to walk, talk, and act, and above all to pray and to love. As St. Bernadine of Siena put it, “He [St. Joseph] was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of his greatest treasures, namely his divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife. He carried out this vocation with complete fidelity until at last God called him.” The late French Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet drew the connection between Joseph and the Apostles, saying “He accomplished his vocation, for just as the apostles were the ministers of Jesus Christ revealed, so Joseph was the minister and the companion of his hidden life.”

Brothers and sisters: we have in St. Joseph a great intercessor and spiritual father who wants nothing more than to helps us on our journey of faith and discernment, leading us to God. May St. Joseph, the righteous man, pray for us and ask for us the grace of humility and the righteousness that comes from faith.

Place of Our Hope

“Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked… But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night.”

Psalm 1:1a, 2

In the very first Psalm the tone of the Book, and in fact the whole of the Christian life, is set — blessed is the one who follows not the wicked but rather the one who delights in the law of the Lord. One can either choose good or evil, not both. One can either choose God or the enemy. Naturally one would want to choose good and for the Christian one would want to choose God, but as life would have it and as a consequence of sin, the choice in practicality is not always easy.

Because of the evil one and sin our good intentions and efforts may sometimes result in bad decisions and actions. When we become attached to things in a way that is unhealthy or disordered any good that we may have wanted to do may be undermined. As a human race, we have become attached to sin, sometimes not even seeing it or realizing it. But it is not just happening now. It has been happening for a long time, back to the time of Adam and Eve. When the Prophets tried to get the people to go back on track, they rejected them and even killed them, but sometimes they did listen. The Israelites soon realized that when the listened to God and lived out His commandments they were strong and healthy and happy. However, when they complained against God, made false idols, and strayed away from God, they found themselves weak and overpowered by enemies. In other words when they placed their hope in God, life was good, but when they placed their hope in themselves or even in their adversaries, life was turbulent and endangered. For God is life, and without God there is no life.

Where do we place our hope? Do we entrust our lives to God? To others? To ourselves? Where is the place of our hope? Only when we place our hope in Someone and not something, will we find ourselves peaceful in the midst of trials, joyful in the midst of sorrow, and grateful in the midst of tragedy. Because this Someone is not limited, bound by space or time, but rather eternal, all-powerful, and unchanging, our hope can be assured. When we place our hope in something that is not eternal, like the things we may sometimes place our security in — our jobs, our own means and possessions, and even other people — once those things go or change, our hope will be shaken and our lives questioned. But if we ground, root, and place our hope in the One who is eternal and unchanging, even when things around us crumble and fall, and even when we ourselves stumble and fall, we will be caught, held, and protected in the hands of God. So, brothers and sisters, where is the place of your hope?